After Jennifer Aniston joined the chorus of women calling out J.D. Vance for his views regarding women’s bodies and rights, Trump’s VP pick again bristled at the actress’ public sentiments. Why the potential future Vice-President of the country is entangled in a back-and-forth exchange with Rachel from Friends is anyone’s guess. Surely, this man has more important things to do? Like defending himself against couch sex allegations?
Backing up for a moment: After Vance was announced as Donald Trump’s running mate, a 2021 clip resurfaced of him describing women who don’t have children as “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.” In the clip, Vance says Democrats like Vice-President Kamala Harris and Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez are running the country even though, as he sees it, they “don’t really have a direct stake” in it because they don’t have biological children.
On Wednesday, Aniston responded to Vance’s comments, writing in an Instagram Story that she “truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States.” She went on: “All I can say is … Mr Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day.” She added that she hopes Vance’s daughter “will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.” Harris called attention to a similar point last week, when she described Vance as “an individual who has made every indication that he is for a national abortion ban” and “participated in blocking protections for IVF” during a speech in Michigan. Aniston, who doesn’t have children, has talked about undergoing IVF and previously said that women “are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child.” Online, child-free women have rallied behind Harris and backed up Aniston. Some reminded Vance that a certain influential blonde pop star with no children and three cats has yet to endorse a candidate.
On Friday, Vance responded to the backlash surrounding his comments on the Megyn Kelly Show, according to the New York Times, and seemed to take a direct jab at Aniston’s Instagram story. “Hollywood celebrities say, ‘Oh, well, JD Vance, what if your daughter suffered fertility problems?’” Vance said on the Sirius XM show. “Well, first of all, that’s disgusting because my daughter is 2 years old. And second of all, if she had fertility problems, as I said in that speech, I would try everything I could to try to help her because I believe families and babies are a good thing.” Might someone explain slowly to J.D. that not everyone is childless by choice? He seems to have missed the “Hollywood” celebrity’s point entirely.
“The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” Vance continued. “And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”
While some Republicans have taken issue with the fact that Harris hasn’t given birth to children, it’s not accurate that she’s childless: the vice-president is the stepmother of Doug Emhoff’s two children, Ella and Cole. Emhoff’s ex-wife, Kerstin Emhoff, also chimed in, telling the New York Times on Wednesday that the criticisms of Harris not having her own children “are baseless attacks.” She added: “For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I. She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it.” Ella Emhoff backed her mom up, writing on her Instagram Story on Thursday, “How can you be ‘childless’ when you have cutie pie kids like Cole and I?” She added: “I love my three parents.”
